Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Day before yesterday, I was peacefully knitting in the living room when I heard a loud noise. Crashity-boom-boom-BANG! “It sound like someone coming in with an empty trailer,” I thought, “only they’re going way too fast.” It seemed to go on and on, though, so I got up to look. At first I could see nothing out of the way, then I noticed agitated horses running up and down their pens, and finally I saw a commotion up on the road. People were running toward it from every direction, so I went out to look.

It turned out that a horse trailer, with two horses in it, had come loose from its truck and run wild down the road. It had been going north, but at some point it jumped the center divider, spun around, and went tail first down the embankment. It stayed on its wheels, but the two horses were jammed together and in trouble.

It was, at least, a good place for it to happen. There were lots of people there to help get the horses out and administer first aid. Still, with the heavy traffic, it was a scary situation.

It didn’t take long for the highway patrol to get there, and someone had called Dr. Paul the vet.

It was a relief to see the horses out and standing up. They were cut up and bruised, but standing on their own four legs. Granddaughter Christina reacted with her usual competence, and brought up her truck and trailer. The two horses loaded up and headed in. It turned out that they were our boarders, and had been headed home.

My worst moment came at the beginning of the whole thing, when someone shouted, “One of those is the horse Andrew rides!” Immediately I visualized Kitty in the middle of the wreck; but it wasn’t her. Andrew reassured me that she was safely in her pen.

It looks like the horses will be all right, if a long time healing. We heard that the cause was a too-small ball on the truck, which allowed the hitch to bounce loose. The emergency chains held briefly, but snapped and sent the trailer off on its own. It was so lucky that no cars on the road were hit. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

I told Billy later, “I’ve seen a lot of trucks come in without trailers, but that’s the first time I’ve seen a trailer come in without a truck!”

On a more cheerful note, here is little Weston on Kitty, with his family — and his hat. It might be more accurate to say the hat is wearing Weston.

We had another serious incident a few days ago, ending in a parade of ambulances.

I was out walking the dogs, and headed back to give carrots to Kitty and Pepsi. As I approached, I could see three things out of place; there was a car parked behind the last pen, there was a horse tied to the fence, and there was a man standing there. When I got up to him, he said something about someone helping the lady. Circling around the car — which was running — I found one of our long-time boarders slumped against the passenger-side door, in the middle of a seizure.

I had come out without my cell phone, which was on the charger, so I asked the little man (who was standing there helplessly) to stay with her while I went back to the house. Off I went at my best old-lady trot, to call 911. There was absolutely no one else around.

I called 911 back at the house, on the land line. I was so out of breath that I had a hard time making myself understood, but I got them on their way. Then I called Scott and Andrew. I needed someone to guide the ambulance in, because the site of the problem was well to the back of the property. Then I set off back to help, as fast as I could go (not very).

When I got back, the man (probably homeless, and Hispanic) was still standing beside her, and she was still seizing. I shut off the ignition, put the horse away, and asked him to go help to guide the ambulance while I stayed with her, as no one else had made it over yet. I stayed there and talked to her, but I don’t think she could hear or understand me.

Luckily, several ambulances arrived very quickly, and they loaded her up and took her to Emergency. She apparently had no ID on her, so we were afraid they would have trouble contacting her relatives. I made a couple of calls, and someone did manage to contact her mother. She came by the next day, and said her daughter was doing better.

The behavior of the little homeless guy was an example of humankindness. I would guess that he wasn’t the sharpest person around — he couldn’t quite figure out what to do, but he didn’t want to leave her. He said he was on his way to his home (likely the river) but liked to stop and pet the horses. That’s when he found her. He could have taken off with the car, or just run off to avoid responsibility, but he didn’t. Billy and Scott had arrived by that time, and we slipped him a twenty, which seemed like the least we could do.

If I hadn’t walked out that way, it might have been some time before she was found. She was not visible until you walked around the car. She had probably lain there for quite a while. It was about seven when I found her, and at about five Scott, driving the feed truck, had stopped to ask her if she was all right. She had said she was, but obviously she wasn’t. All in all, it was very lucky.

But it’s getting so I’m afraid to go out of the door — at least without my cell phone.

On a happier note, here are a pair of blonds — daughter Suzanne and her grandson Weston, communing on the lawn. There are few things cuter than the back of a little boy’s head . . .

They were joined by a third blond — Peaches, wanting to help Weston fall in a hole.

I’ve been putting off writing this blog entry, both because it was painful and because I wanted to see how things were going to come out. I think it’s time now.

A little over a week ago, our friend and boarder Jennifer was riding in the arena by the house when she was thrown, hard. Luckily Billy was looking out, and saw the dust flying. I ran out and found Jennifer on the ground, unable to move. She thought her knee was broken. I ran to the house and told Billy to call an ambulance. In the meantime, I ran back and forth getting water and pillows. When she was as comfortable as possible (not very) I went to catch the horse.

I looked back when I heard Jennifer scream, just in time to see the ever-sympathetic Peaches sitting on Jennifer’s injured knee. I yelled at her, and she jumped off and ran — but not too far. A fire truck arrived about that time, closely followed by the ambulance, and they packed her up and took her off, calling back that she was going to ride that horse yet!

Later we heard that she had a dislocated knee, but that wasn’t the problem. An artery in her leg had torn, and they were flying her to Fresno for surgery. There they took a section of artery from her groin, and used it to mend the torn artery. It was touch and go; she was in danger of losing the leg.

Now, better than a week later, Jennifer still has both legs, but after multiple surgeries, it’s looking like a long hard road to recovery. She’s getting a lot of moral support from her many friends here. It’s looking like she may be transferred back to KMC soon, though she has at least one more surgery to go.

I was worrying that Peaches’ sympathy might have aggravated the injury, but it was the opposite. I understand that the doctor said that her weight popped the knee back into place, and may well have kept Jennifer from bleeding out. They’re calling her Doctor Peaches around here!

Here’s Jennifer at the beach, a while ago . . .

It may take a while, but I expect to see her back there. She’s a very strong person.

And here’s Peaches supervising Jennifer-the-farrier.

I guess she counts horseshoeing as one of her skills, along with medicine!

This little orphan, and three horses, showed up here a couple of days ago. They had been evacuated from the Cedar fire, in the mountains to the northeast.

It was pretty tough on the little guy, coming from cool mountains to HOT Bakersfield. In fact, he didn’t stay long, but was evacuated for a second time — to a local feed store where he could be nice and cool inside.

Here’s what the fire looked like yesterday.

Here’s what it looked like at sunset; not the fire directly, but the smoke in our air.

I wish that whoever started these things, from carelessness or malice, had to live with all of the destruction they cause. You can bet that they go back to their nice safe houses — some of them to enjoy watching their work on the news. This fire is about 15,000 acres now, but it’s nothing to the Blue Cut fire down south, or the Erskine fire earlier this summer.

Yet another car came off of the road at the tunnel. This wasn’t a serious wreck; the car landed upright and no one was injured. In a few moments, people were helping them get it off of the county fence.

Unfortunately, as soon as they were free of the fence, and as the fire, ambulance, and Highway Patrol started to arrive, they got turned around and took off. Obviously they wanted nothing to do with the officials. They didn’t know how to get out of the ranch, though, and spent the next twenty minutes or so driving madly all over the place, looking for a way out. The Highway Patrol was looking for them, but apparently didn’t know they were still down here.

Eventually, they found their way to the levee, which usually has a locked gate at each end. In a stroke of luck for them, though, a county employee was working up there and had left the west gate unlocked. They got away free. The Patrol has their license number, though, so unless it was a stolen car (very possible) they’ll be found.

It’s not always that exciting around here. I stopped on our ride this morning to get a shot of this lovely bush. Several of our customers have landscaped their tackrooms, and this one is especially pretty. I’m not sure what the bush is, except it seems to be some variety of rose.

This was supposed to be a post about the beautiful wildflower drive Marion and I took yesterday, but events intervened.

I was sound asleep about six this morning when I heard Billy calling me. (I sleep like a rock, but always manage to hear his voice.) He had heard a bang, then someone at the door, and since he can’t get up quickly he needed me to see what was going on. I stuck my head out of the door, and an early boarder called that a car had just hit the fence at Jill’s pen, and that there were a couple of apparent drunks trying to get away.

I went out in my robe, just as the man quit revving the motor and trying to back out of the fence. I called to him that he wasn’t going anywhere, and might as well wait for the cops. Then I hightailed it back to the house to tell Billy yes, he should call them. Right now.

Then I grabbed the camera and went out to take pictures of the license plate, in case they did manage to get it out. It wasn’t likely. The man had taken off by then, and the woman told me — repeatedly — that she had just been the passenger. Very soon, the Highway Patrol arrived.

As I was telling him what I had seen, we turned around and looked toward the river. There was the driver, obviously trying to make up his mind whether to take off again, or not. The patrolman picked him up, and later they hauled both of them away.

They did quite a job on Jill’s pen.

Luckily, no one, human or horse, was hurt. And the water line — those pipes carry water — hadn’t broken. Later we learned that they had been speeding in circles around the place, honking the horn. Billy had heard the horn, but thought it was up on the road. Nope. I have no idea what they thought they were doing. Trying to scare the horses to watch them run, maybe. That’s happened before.

We heard later that they had found stolen articles in the car, and that there had been a third person involved, but that is secondhand. At any rate, the police apparently decided to lock up everyone involved, at least for the present.